The United States Supreme Court will hear oral argument next month on an Arizona case regarding a retired service member’s retired pay and disability pay. The couple’s divorce decree ordered them to evenly divide the service member spouse’s military retired pay. A few years later, he decided to accept disability pay in lieu of part of his retired pay. This is a common decision because the government taxes military retired pay but not disability pay. However, this decision reduced his military retired pay and therefore reduced his former spouse’s half of his military retired pay. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the service member spouse’s acceptance of disability pay could not reduce the dollar amount that his former spouse received. The United States Supreme Court accepted this case for review last month.
The Uniformed Services Former Spouses Protection Act is a federal law that allows state courts to divide a spouse’s military retired pay upon divorce. There is no federal law authorizing state courts to divide disability pay. Arizona courts have found that the service member spouse cannot use the disability pay option to reduce the dollar amount that his or her former spouse receives. Now the United States Supreme Court will decide whether this is correct.
You can find more information on this case here: http://www.scotusblog.com/2017/03/argument-preview-justices-consider-family-law-military-benefits/
